The First World Children Animated Film Festival

„Golden Snail 2009″

“Golden Snail 2009” was held from 27. – 31. on August in year 2009. In organization by school of animated film under the patronage of City of Vranje and Republic of Serbia’s Ministry of Culture. International jury members were Anastasia Dimitra (Greece), Pencho Kuchev (Bulgaria) and Miodrag Novakovic (Serbia). In official festival’s program 67 films were shown from Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine and Belgium. Jury’s common evaluation is that every film deserves attention and that they are special just because they have been created by children. Jury has given three awards per two categories as well as festival Grand Prix. The First WCFAF has been opened by Mrs. Milica Kuzmanovic – Jankovic, chief of stuff at Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia and professor at Fine Art Academy in Belgrade. Borivoj Bordo Dovnikovic closed the first WCFAF.

The Second World Children Animated Film Festival

„Golden Snail 2011″

“Golden Snail 2009” was held from 19. – 25. August in year 2011. in organization by school of animated film under the patronage of City of Vranje and Ministry of Culture of Republic of Serbia. Total number of guests is 69 participants from Serbia and abroad. By the program, manifestation is outlined as children and youth festival which were not that days in Vranje just animated film passive observers at the festival but were engaged in creative – making part of the manifestation, at the eighth international children animated film workshop. Manifestation “Golden Snail’s” main goal is children and youth activation and engagement in social – cultural life through interesting art forms like animation film, graffiti and documentary film. The final measurable results of the whole project are three animated films, one graffiti, two documentary films, three bulletins, catalog from the festival and one really good creative atmosphere.

2nd World Children Animated Film Festival

Members of the international jury were Milan Bunčić (Croatia), instead of Ms. Vesna Dovniković (Croatia), Secretary General of ASIFA, who canceled shortly before the start of the festival due to the sudden injuries of her husband Borivoje Dovniković Bordo, Penčo Kunčev (Bulgaria) as president of the jury and Stevica Živkov ). In the official program of the festival, 50 films from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and India are shown. The general rating of the jury is that all the films are worth the attention and that they are exceptional in the fact that they were made and created by the children. The jury awarded three awards in two categories as well as the festival Grand Prix for films from India.

8.International Children’s Animated Film Workshop

The workshop was attended by children from Serbia (Vranje, Dimitrovgrad, Krusevac, Omoljica, Cacak, Belgrade, Obrenovac, Jagodina, Cuprija, Lozovik), Croatia, Bulgaria and India. We worked in clay, cut – out and pixilation techniques. By the program, the workshop was refreshed by the appearance of graffiti as a relatively new art form, which is very popular in our target group. In this way, we tried to follow the needs of the population for which we exist and for which we organize these mass meetings of creators from Vranje, Serbia and region. In order to justify the presence of graffiti in the animated film workshop, we have recorded the whole process of graffiti creation in pixelation technique. The techniques of animated films at the workshop were:

Clay – the leader of this group was Rastko Ciric (professor FAA, leads the department for postgraduate studies for animation), a famous animator, illustrator and graphic designer from Belgrade. Rastko Ciric worked an interesting animated film with group of children, which involved the transformation of the ball. It is a rarity that for the first time was recorded at the same time with 14 different cameras and photographs that are personally owned by the children participants in the workshop. The film that emerged in clay technique is called the “Ball”, with duration of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Cut – out – the leader of this group was Nitin Donde, from India who came to Vranje with five children from India, New Delhi. The film that emerged in the collage technique is called Cut – out by Nitin, a duration of 5 minutes and 45 seconds.

Pixilation – a film that was created is called “The Young Law”, with duration of 1 minute and 35 seconds. The participants of this workshop who made graffiti were also in charge of filming an animated film that was later edited in the right way to show the whole process.

Graffiti “The Young Law”, the leader of this group was Saša Lortek (Aleksandar Slivnjak) one of the most famous graffiti masters in Serbia with a rich international career with colleague Aleksandra Petković – TKV from Belgrade.

Documentary film – another interesting moment was the creation of two documentary films. The first film, titled “Our 25 Years” was recorded by guests from Croatia during the event. It is a 16 minute documentary about the history of SAF, our manifestation, because the next year our school celebrates the 25 year anniversary of 25. The second film was filmed by a volunteer from the Youth Office of the City of Vranje, who demonstrated the atmosphere of the entire manifestation through a video clip.

The Golden Snail event took place in an extremely good atmosphere. Meeting of ASIFA Serbia was held, with chairman Božidar Zečević, president of ASIFA Serbia. The meeting was attended by members from Vranje and Serbia who were guests at the event. The evaluation of all participants and guests is that “Golden Snail 2011” has succeeded in gathering the best artists, animators and creators from Serbia and the world in Vranje who knows how to decentralize the cultural scene of Serbia.

Third World Children’s Animated Film Festival “Golden Snail 2013”

“Golden Snail 2013” was held from 22. to 26. August 2013. organized by the Public institution School of Animated Film under the auspices of the City of Vranje and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia as general sponsors and the Italian Institute for Culture from Belgrade, numerous donors, sponsors and friends of the festival who helped in organizing the festival in much smaller but certainly not in insignificant amounts.

59 films from seven countries (Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) were announced at the festival. Total number of participants of 50 children, young people, their mentors and guests from Croatia, Italy, Bulgaria and Serbia (Kruševac, Dimitrovgrad, Belgrade).

Due to the increasingly difficult economic situation affecting all spheres of society and thus maintaining cultural manifests, this year’s number of participants outside Vranje compared to previous years has been significantly reduced due to the budget that we had available.

Like many years back, “Golden Snail 2013” was conceived as a festival of children and young people who had been engaged in the educational and creative part of the festival for several days in Vranje with a rich accompanying program. The general goal of Golden Snail is the activation of children and youth and their inclusion and engagement in social and cultural life. The final, measurable results of the entire project are three Master class workshops as well as discussions with members of the jury as eminent experts in the field of animated film.

The first master class of workshops – the leader of this workshop was Andrea Martignoni from Bologna (Italy). The arrival of Andree Martignoni (a short form artist and works on sounding an animated films in the professional and production of children’s animated films) was assisted by the Italian Institute for Culture from Belgrade. This is the second time that we have had cooperation with this institution, and we hope that cooperation will become not only traditional but also in a much larger scale in the following period. The children of the workshop had the opportunity to listen to a lecture on sounding animated films in professional productions.

The second master class of workshops – the leader of this workshop was Penco Kuncev, from Bulgaria who came to Vranje with children from Bulgaria and mentor Radostina Nejkova. Penco Kunchev is vice-president of ASIFA and president of ASIFA Bulgaria and is well-known animator, designer and short-form artist. At the workshop he talked about a part of making animated films, about the setting. The lecture was accompanied by a parallel active discussion with children, as well as presentation of the subject through the screening of films as well as original drawings.

The third master class of workshops – host of this workshop was Stevica Zivkov, animator from Belgrade. The subject of this workshop included a further part of making animated films. At the workshop, there was a story about a storyboard (a scenario in the form of a comic book). The lecture was followed by children with a comparative view of proffesional storyboard.

In memory of Nikola Majdak, a professor from Belgrade, a longtime friend and associate of SAF, who left us in May this year, a speech with the upcoming presentation of the films he did was held by Miroslav Simonovic, the founder and longtime leader of the SAF.

In honor of Nikola Majdak this year, a prize will be awarded which will be awarded at the festival “Golden Snail” – Nikola Majdak Award.

During the “Golden Snail 2013” Festival, the material on all events was used for the production of a documentary film about the Festival.

Guests and participants of the Festival had the opportunity to watch projections of feature films every night. In addition to film’s made by children, they introduced themselves to some new techniques and ideas from their peers from other countries.

The “Golden Snail” Festival went into an exceptionally good atmosphere, based on the reactions and praise received by the members of the jury, the leader of the workshops master class and the guests who participated at the Festival. We organized a tour of the city, a picnic at the Prvonek Dam defense center, and the guests visited the Special Hospital for Rehabilitation Vranjska Spa, and a reception at the City Administration of the City of Vranje, where all the participants were welcomed by the Deputy Mayor of the City of Vranje.

Fourth World Children’s Animated Film Festival “Golden Snail 2015”

“Golden Snail 2015” was held from 16th to 19th of July. organized by the Public Institution of the School of Animated Film under the auspices of the City of Vranje and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia as general sponsors, the US Embassy in Belgrade and the Italian Institute for Culture from Belgrade, numerous donors, sponsors and friends of the festival who helped organize the festival in many less, but certainly not in insignificant amounts.

224 films from twenty countries were registered at the Festival. The selection committee decided to include 43 films in the Competition Program, out of which 33 films were in competition for 15 years and 10 films in competition from 15 to 20 years. 30 films were shown in the Information Program.

The jury composed of Snezana Trstenjak (Serbia), Jovan Markovic (Serbia) and Monika Masuchi (Italy) awarded the Grand prix festival as well as the Golden, Silver and Bronze Snail in both categories. In addition to the main prizes, the jury awarded eight diplomas, one of which is “Nikola Majdak diploma”.

Like many years back, “Golden Snail 2015” was conceived as a festival of children and young people who had been engaged in the educational and creative part of the festival for several days in Vranje with a rich accompanying program. The general goal of Golden Snail is the activation of children and youth and their inclusion and engagement in social and cultural life. The final, measurable result of the whole project is a Master class workshop, a presentation of the student films of the Italian School “Experimental Cinema Center”, a presentation of the Festival of Slovenian and Orthodox countries “Golden Knight” as well as discussions and discussions with members of the jury as eminent experts in the field of animated film.

Master class workshops – the head of this workshop was Rey Kosarin from New York (USA). The arrival of a guest – a lecturer from USA was assisted by the American Embassy in Belgrade. The children of the workshop had the opportunity to get to know the work of Ray Kosarin and to make an animated film at the workshop.

The Golden Snail Festival went into an exceptionally good atmosphere, based on the reactions and praise received by the members of the jury, the master of the class of the workshop as well as the guests who participated in the Festival. We organized a tour of the city, a picnic at Prohor Pcinjski, where guests had the opportunity to visit the monastery itself, and reception in the City Administration of Vranje, where the mayor of the City of Vranje welcomed all participants.

Fifth World Children Animated Film Festival “Golden Snail 2017”

The Fifth World Animated Film Festival “Golden Snail 2017” was held in September 2017. in organization by SAF, under the auspices of the City of Vranje, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia , numerous donors, sponsors and friends of the festival that helped festival maintenance. 862 films from 80 countries of the world have been reported. The festival was opened by the City Mayor of Vranje, Mr. Slobodan Milenkovic. The competition part was divided into two groups: The first group consisted of works by children under 15 years old and the second from 15 to 20 years. Prizes for the first three places in both categories were awarded, Grand Prix for Best Film, Nikola Majdak Special Award and 2 Special Awards. In addition to the official film screenings, festival visitors also had the opportunity to see the accompanying program of the festival: information program of the festival, presentation of the animated film festival VAFI from Croatia and ANIMAKS from Macedonia. 42 animated films were shown atn the festival’s informative program. About 1000 children and young people from our city watched films of their peers from around the world. We also showed Vranje to the visitors, introduced them to the history of our city, visited the National Museum, the Church of the Holy Trinity, and the house of Bora Stanković.

We celebrated 30 years of existence and successful work of our school.